What was Boston like in the years before the Boston Massacre?

Boston was a hub of Patriots and the American rebels, which, in the years before the Massacre, led to building tension between the British and Americans in Boston. Loyalists would be harassed, and were often driven out of the city. The Massacre was kind of a final straw for a lot of Bostonians.

The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a patriot mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Se ... veral colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry.